1. A new method to evaluate nicotine exposure in infants
- Author
-
Werner Sauseng, Heinz Zotter, Sigrid Thaller, Reinhold Kerbl, and Reingard Aigner
- Subjects
Male ,Paper ,Parents ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,NICOTINE EXPOSURE ,Maternal smoking ,Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ,Urine ,Nicotine ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Adverse health effect ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Humans ,Medicine ,Cotinine ,Creatinine ,business.industry ,Diapers, Infant ,Ethics committee ,Infant ,chemistry ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Female ,Tobacco Smoke Pollution ,business ,Biomarkers ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Exposure of infants to parental smoking has been associated with several adverse health effects [6]. It was the aim of this study to find an easily applicable method to collect urine samples from infants and to correlate cotinine concentrations with parental smoking habits. This study was approved by the local Ethics Committee. Filter paper strips (Schleicher and Schuell, Germany) were placed in the nappies of infants. After wetting, the paper strips were air-dried, cut into small pieces, and extracted with 0.01 M phosphate buffer solution for 24 h. From this eluate, cotinine was analysed by ELISA and correlated to creatinine concentration (expressed as ng cotinine/mg creatinine, CCR). The parents’ smoking habits were evaluated by a structured questionnaire. CCR was determined in 93 infants (38 females) with a median age of 63 days (range 25–221 days). Exclusion criteria were questionnaires with incomplete information and urine creatinine levels 30 ng/mg, a cut-off level based on a previous study [2]. We found a significant correlation ( P
- Published
- 2004